Every blank space seems fair game for marketers

~ Companies are using any means necessary to grab consumer attention and dollars.

They've been seen on pregnant bellies and tattooed on foreheads. They've invaded bathroom stalls, cell phones and doctors' offices. They've sneaked their way into movies, TV shows, novels and even Broadway plays.

They are ads and, come September, they'll be more maddeningly ubiquitous than ever.

In the fall, a laser-imprinted CBS eye logo and slogan will appear on eggs in major markets as the network launches 35 million "egg-vertisements" to generate publicity for its fall television lineup. Look for ads to start appearing on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. And superhero lovers will likely see more product placement inside the pages of Marvel and DC Comics by year's end.

These companies are among those using any means necessary in the hyper-frantic global battle to grab consumer attention and dollars. With more than $270 billion spent on ads in the United States alone last year -- and about $570 billion worldwide -- experts say there's little ground left that advertisers haven't already conquered.

"It's hard to imagine where advertising doesn't appear nowadays," says Erik Gordon, a Johns Hopkins University marketing professor. "You can make an argument that the whole world has become an ad. Nothing is sacred anymore. It even appears in my dreams. My bad dreams."

Advertising in dreams doesn't seem so far-fetched considering the lengths and depths to which companies have gone to call attention to a product. Billboards have gotten bigger. Television commercials have gotten louder, brighter, edgier and more manic. Advertising companies increasingly push the boundaries, whether selling by shock like Volkswagen's car crash ads or sex like Unilever's Axe body spray spots, which often show an Axe-sprayed man being mobbed by women.

As advertising in newspapers, TV and magazines fell short of reaching target audiences such as teenagers, experts say, the quest to reach consumers became more innovative and, some might argue, invasive.

While some methods were obvious (product placement of brand names in TV shows and movies, for example), others were sneaky, such as buzz marketing campaigns that hire hundreds of everyday people to talk up a particular product.

In the case of ads on eggs, CBS used a new technology and applied it to age-old marketing concepts. The network partnered with Illinois-based EggFusion by sponsoring the company's special laser-coded expiration dates on eggs sold by grocers. The eggs will include slogans such as "Crack the Case on CBS" for its hit show "CSI."

"The problem that we, as advertisers, have is breaking through the clutter," said Mark Levit, managing partner at Partners & Levit Inc., an advertising agency in New York. "There is so much advertising on so many different media that we constantly seek to find new ways to deliver our messages. It's a challenge."

Such is the challenge that even so-called new advertising news seems old. This month, Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways plans to sell ad space on its air sickness bags. Virgin Atlantic covered that queasy area last year when it stocked flights with 100,000 "Star Wars"-themed air sickness bags.

Marvel and DC Comics have signed lucrative deals with heavy-hitters like General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac, Nike Inc. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Dodge to either develop story lines around specific products or weave more brand names into scenes.

"Consumers have become increasingly cynical and increasingly willing to find ways to tune out advertising through technology," said Ken Bernhardt, professor of marketing at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "The goal for many marketers is to get their product into the consideration set of alternatives that consumers evaluate when they make a purchase."

The difficulty in getting a message noticed might explain why once-sacred places such as home, church and schools aren't so much any more, said Bruce Vanden Bergh, a professor of advertising at Michigan State University.

"Everyone's trying to catch you under the radar," Vanden Bergh said. "They're trying to catch you where you least expect it. ... People may think it's crass, but we are a consumer culture."

Consider all the areas once considered sacrosanct. Schools? Cash-starved school districts have turned school buses into rolling advertisements. Home? An Atlanta house was painted bright pink and decorated with an E! and "The Simple" Life logo to promote the reality show. Church? Many church programs have included ads for years and new megachurches are often built with a Starbucks and McDonald's. Funerals? The growing trend toward personalizing the rites of the dying has brought us Harley-Davidson-themed memorials and caskets designed in homage to favorite beers and sports teams.

Could sleep be the next frontier? New York-based research firm eMarketer thought so when it duped many industry types last April Fool's Day into falling for a report about a new technology that implants nanobots in the brain to stimulate ads while you dream. It even forecasted that in-sleep ads will be a $3.3 billion market by 2010.

It's probably only a matter of time, Johns Hopkins marketing professor Gordon says, before "someone will figure out how to wirelessly beam advertisements directly into our heads someday while we are sleeping."